Nostromo

Conrad invents a whole South American republic, Costaguana, and its silver port Sulaco, then fills it with revolutions and a hoard of mine silver that corrupts everyone it touches; the fictional coast is built from the real northern shore of South America Conrad had seen, anchored here to Colombia's Caribbean rim.

Nostromo (Gian' Battista Fidanza)

Sulaco, the silver port (Santa Marta)

The port

Sulaco is the isolated port where nearly all the novel happens, a town cut off from the rest of Costaguana by mountains and reachable only by sea. Its harbour, its Italian and English residents, and its silver trade make it a small world where the whole national drama plays out. Santa Marta, a real Colombian port beneath the coastal peaks, stands here for that invented town.

The port

inspired by Sulaco is a wholly invented port in the fictional republic of Costaguana, not a real town. Conrad built it from the Caribbean and South American coasts he sailed; the pin marks Santa Marta, an old Colombian port under a coastal mountain wall, as a representative real anchor. Costaguana and Sulaco are fictional.

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